The present invention relates to video on demand or content on demand systems generally used for a service that provides digital video and other digital multimedia content to the user at his or her request. Current commercial solutions do not provide an ability to access seamlessly any content that is made available by content providers. Current solutions are impossible to deploy for unlimited content and unlimited end users.
Existing video-on-demand (VOD) [or other content-on-demand (COD)] services allow user to access digital media such as movies and TV shows through a transport medium such as cable, satellite, fiber optics network or twisted pair copper wire (typical telephony network). Currently, VOD services are served by systems consisting of a head-end provider operating through a distribution network to provide content to client terminals of end users. Prior art approaches also include proxy servers, which are in between the head-end provider and plural end users such that the proxy servers provide various services that include system administration, protocol management and security to enhance the performance of the system.
Therefore, it would be beneficial if VOD systems could provide content without the use of proxy servers or other systems that reduce the overall bandwidth of the system and thereby reduce the throughput resulting in lost frames or delays in transmission.